Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Guest Post & Book Giveaway with Anna Katherine

Anna Katherine, has kindly agreed to share a guest post with us today. She’s also offered to give away a signed copy of Salt and Silver to one lucky reader who comments on this post (see below for details).

One of the most fun parts of writing a paranormal romance is figuring out just where the “paranormal” is going to come in. Traditional vampire mythology? Trip to Faerie? Zombie hordes? I want to work out what the world is like, find all the bad bits, and then make my characters deal with 'em.

To a certain extent, I'd already be doing that if I was worldbuilding any novel -- if my story's a historical set in Georgian England, I need to know what's going on with the time period and the area in order to figure out what sort of issues my characters are going to have (Answer: gambling and a lot of scatological humor. Really). Then the siren call of research would beckon me, and I’d fall headfirst into glorious first-person accounts of business transactions and gossip-filled biographies as far as the eye can see.

(Um. This may not apply to everyone.)

But with paranormals, I have a lot of choices -- make it up, or go with something established? Follow the dominant trends within the romance field, or go a different way entirely? It's a tough set of choices to make, even if I don't realize I'm making them right away -- instead, I find out around chapter 6 or so, when I suddenly need to know whether my vampires can or can't enter homes (or beds) without permission.

For my book SALT AND SILVER, I decided to mix my two loves -- solid historical research and urban fantasy. So, modern setting, a Brooklyn diner, a spoiled ex-rich kid, et cetera. All stuff I can pull from my personal mental warehouse of data. And then, from the 1890s:

If we analyse the principles of thought on which magic is based, they will probably be found to resolve themselves into two: first, that like produces like, or that an effect resembles its cause; and, second, that things which have once been in contact with each other continue to act on each other at a distance after the physical contact has been severed. The former principle may be called the Law of Similarity, the latter the Law of Contact or Contagion.

That there's Sir James Frazer, in his book The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion, which is considered by many to be the be-all-end-all of magic research. Based on the "magic" and folklore of several cultures, he came up with the basic principles that every little bit of magic could fall under. This isn't saying a made-up word in Latin and suddenly your rabbit's a teacup -- this is how people, in this world, really think about magic.

So I sez to myself, Self, I'm setting the book in the real world anyway -- why not go all the way with it? And that's how a snippet of scene like this could come up:

“Names are . . . magic.” Ryan puts his other hand over mine. It's warm and dry and anchors me. "It's a part of you, like your blood. If a demon or a witch gets a part of you--"

I frown. "Is it contagion magic again? Like with salt?"

He nods. "It's related. Doing something to a part of you can be made the same as doing it to you. So names, true names . . . those are something you want to protect."

Awesome magic, awesomely real magic, and a nifty way to bring a little twist to what readers are used to.

On the other hand, none of this goes to explain why my vampires have wings and my werewolves have faceted eyes... but writing can't be just research, can it?

Now for the giveaway! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post for a chance to win a signed copy of Salt and Silver from Anna Katherine. The contest is open worldwide and the winner will be announced on May 12, 2009. Good luck!

I have to admit, I've never read a paranormal romance before, but Salt and Silver intrigues me. The fact that you're not only taking history but also the historical concepts of magic of the time, instead of making up your own, to create the rules for the story is really, well, neat!

azteclady: Through the mysteries of the writing process, the demons became (to more or less degrees) insect-related. So our vampires have wings (and something else...), our werewolves have faceted eyes, and there are, of course, the demons of the third Hell.... Keep an eye out for our next book in this universe, though -- we're working on something dealing directly with the vampires!

Explicit Academia:Thanks! It's sort of a yes/no situation, though. We've got a blog post coming up one of these days discussing historical magic theory and how it's applied in SALT AND SILVER -- really, while the principles are there, we do exercise some artistic license. On the other hand, we don't deviate much from the general philosophy -- for instance, that if a magic-using society hears a good idea, they're going to incorporate it whether or not it originated from their own culture. Which is how a lot of Hebrew and mathematical symbols ended up in grimoires, coincidentally -- it looks magical, it sounds magical, ergo.... If you want to see a bit more of our research/thinking on this topic, drop by our website and click on the magic link -- there'll be some choice quotes, and a further link to "Ryan's" del.icio.us research list.

As a general rule I tend to have trouble with romances about, well, romance between a vampire and a human. Same with werewolves. I mean, would you be enthralled by the story about a man hopelessly in love with a chicken? The very idea of vampire/human sex takes "playing with your food" to a whole new level.

On the other hand, I like a good mythology. And a system of magic solidly based on internally consistent "laws." And world building. And worlds built by blending mythologies and magics and (what's generally accepted as) reality. From the insight into your writing processes you've given us here, I'm thinking you enjoy those elements as much as I.

All of which means Salt and Silver sounds like my kind of book. (Which means if I don't win it I'll have to go buy it. Which means a few more meatless pasta dinners.)

Wow, thanks for coming in, folks! Here are a couple more comments directed to specific people:

buddyt:I hear you on the upswing of vampire/werewolf popularity, but there's been a lot of interest for years, really (even ignoring the Twilight series and, further back, the Anne Rice stuff, there's a lot to be said for such classics as Dracula, Le Fanu's Carmilla, and Varney the Vampire: Or, The Feast of Blood, all of which star some sort of romantic or pseudo-romantic vampire). I think one of the big problems coming up now is that authors are trying to find ways to make vampires even more sexy than previous incarnations. Fortunately, SALT AND SILVER isn't a vampire romance -- vamps are really just another beastie at this juncture. The next book set in the universe, though, will have vampires, and the worldbuilding for that is getting... interesting.

danetteb:I'd forgotten about the wings in Dracula! Wings (of the bat variety) aren't exactly new on the scene -- it was a visual that popped up a couple times in the Victorian era. The wings of the vampires in SALT AND SILVER actually came about with the "insect"ing of the demons -- take a gander at what butterflies eat other than nectar (particularly in rainforest regions), and you'll get an idea of where we went with this.

KeVinK.:Never fear -- in this first novel, there are no vampire/human fun-times. In fact, we go rather a long ways to try and make vampires seem really... not that desirable. (Which we're now dealing with as we work on our next book, which is a vamp/human romance. We like a challenge.)

I hear you on the problems involved in a predator/prey romantic relationship, though -- per (particularly the Victorian) fiction and folklore of Western culture, it's definitely something that happens, but it doesn't end well. Le Fanu's Carmilla is, I think, a good example of a vampire story where even the vampire is confused about the romantic aspects of it all, but the story works because of the pathology of the monster (vamp loves the human, really loves the human, she could just eat her up, and then they'd be together forever). In straight-up folklore, though, while there can be a sexual edge to whatever's going on, mostly vampires are just representatives of the Unacceptable Other (for instance, in Mediterranean regions people with red hair are or could become vampires. And let's not even talk about Bulgarian vampires -- the one-nostril thing? Yeah, I'd stake one of those in a heartbeat).

Regarding the magical worldbuilding: Man, I have really got to get that blog post up about the use of historical magic in SALT AND SILVER. Much like real life, our characters are, to a certain extent, making it up as they go along. They're doing it based on things they know have worked in the past, or what they think seems like a good idea, but such is the nature of things. The underlying philosophy of real magic, though, is definitely present.

morbidloren:Ha! Someday I will shoehorn the 8th Book of Moses (from The Greek Magical Papyri) into the action-adventure climax of a book, and then all shall tremble and weep. From the sheer awesomeness.

World building is a lot of the fun. Creating a place where you can go to escape the rules of the here and now. If you want to meet and play with a vampire, the best place is in the world you build. You can have all the fun and chills you want. That's where the thrills live.

Sounds like a great book! I love learning more about why an author writes the way they do.

I have to agree with the Law of Similarity. You attract what you project. And you start to project what you are surrounded by. I know in the past when I was surrounded by critical people (on a forum), I felt more critical. It took my computer breaking to realize what was happening. I've never posted on that forum again.

Paranormal is interesting, and creative, (hey beats the normal)this sounds like my kind of book, i would so love to spend hour upon hour reading it. vampires, werewolves, witches and other abnormal fantasy ceratures are what i like to read, and this book sounds absolutly entertaining, can't wait to read!

It's great to see SALT AND SILVER published! Just a quick question: is it paranormal romance, or urban fantasy? The two intersect, and I read and buy both for the library, but the reviews confused me ...

LynneW - Honestly, I think it's whatever your definition is for each. It's urban fantasy because it's a contemporary fantasy that takes place in an urban setting, but it's paranormal romance as well because of the vampires, werewolves, etc. and the element of romance.

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